Saturday, September 16, 2006

It's been hectic the last 2 weeks and will remain so till the end of the month.

My ceilings needed to be painted and they needed some repair where the sheetrock tape was loose and showing seams. I thought I would have them textured to give them a newer, cleaner look and to hide the flaws.

When you have the ceilings textured, it adds quite a bit of moisture to the area and if you have any loose tape, it will come loose, and it would do the same to any wallpapered areas. I had to have the wallpaper stripped and walls and ceilings repaired, then all walls painted. In the bathroom some mold was discovered behind the tile so it had to be torn out and replaced.

Now that the walls and ceilings are bright and clean, the rug looks dingy and will have to be replaced in the high traffic areas. The old curtains and drapes need to be replaced or at least dry cleaned. I'm replacing the floor and table lamps.

One thing leads to another and it all ends up being done at the same time.A simple idea with good intentions often leads to a complicated course of actions and a lot of cost.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

The following information sounds ominous. Do you suppose anyone up in Washington cares?

A U.S. Labor Department study shows that down at the middle and lower ends of the wage scale - where people often drive pick-ups - real earnings have gone nowhere since 1979. Median wage earners realized a total gain over the entire quarter century of just 2.3%. Low wage earners lost 3.7%. While the picture is dark at the center and below decks, the upper berths on this vessel have enjoyed sunshine and smooth sailing - with real earnings up 20.3% since 1979.

“Meanwhile, local homeowners say it’s a bleak housing market these days, even with some price slashing going by some motivated sellers.

‘We have an oversupply of houses and few buyers out there, for whatever reasons.’“‘The experienced agents are telling me this is one of the worst markets they’ve seen,’ remarked Sue Kappel, who has operated since 1972.

From the East Coast, we get word that the housing market around Washington, D.C., once one of the hottest, is cooling off fast.

The anecdotal evidence is not too thin to conclude that the housing market is not just liable to a mild 5% decline, which would wipe $1 trillion from household wealth. Rather, it is likely to see a full-scale retreat, in which the bids disappear altogether. Some experts are predicting as much as a 20% to 40% collapse in prices, which would be as much as $8 trillion in “wealth” knocked off homeowners’ balance sheets.

On to those poor people who are no longer homeowners! The foreclosure rate is climbing; now, one out of every 1,245 households is in foreclosure. But we note that that still leaves plenty of room for growth.